12 Ulster municipalities, two in Orange, get shot at millions for storm recovery

Thursday

Jul 18, 2013 at 5:15 PMJul 18, 2013 at 5:18 PM

Jeremiah Horrigan

ALBANY -- Twelve Ulster County communities will be able to compete among themselves for $3 million in state and federal funds under a new program launched by state and federal officials Thursday in Albany.

Two Orange County communities -- Florida and Washingtonville -- will each qualify for $3 million. But while Florida will have to compete with several other communities outside the county, Washingtonville will not, because of the way the state's communities are separated into various zones, according to a state official.

The New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program is designed to help 102 communities across the state hit hard by recent storms to “rebuild and strengthen against future extreme weather.”

The announcement was made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a conference with public officials that also featured U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

According to New Paltz Town Supervisor Susan Zimet, who attended the conference, the idea behind the program was described by Cuomo in an anecdote he gave in which President Barack Obama said he didn't want to “bigfoot” the program with top-down federal solutions that might not be suited to every community.

“The idea is for communities to come up with their own ideas that can incorporate such things as infrastructure and nature,” Zimet said Thursday.

The deadline for filing a plan is next year, she said.

The program, for which communities must submit proposals, also calls on communities and counties to cooperate with each other if possible.

The other Ulster County communities that qualify for the program are the village of New Paltz, the town and village of Saugerties, the village of Ellenville, and the towns of Olive, Rochester, Rosendale, Wawarsing Hardenburgh and Woodstock.